Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between perceived alienation and individualistic/collectivistic tendency in Korean culture. The results of this study show that individualistic person tends to feel stronger degree of alienation than collectivistic one in five types of alienation(powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, social isolation, cultural alienation), And woman is more sensitive to alienation than man in such social contexts as self, interrelationship and family. The fact that individualistic person tends to feel more alienated than collectivistic person suggests that Korean society is still perceived as a collectivistic culture by individualistic person. Individualistic woman feels more alienated than individualistic man. But woman's alienation os not related with normlessness. This fact suggests that contemporary Korean society is perceived not being much changed and still man-centered society by individualistic woman. Contrary to this, individualistic man feel all types of alienation, including normlessness. This fact suggests that individualistic man perceives contemporary Korean social norm is being changed and chaotic. In addition to it, the fact that woman is experiencing strong alienation in contexts of family, interrelationship may suggest that woman tends to need more emotional support from others than man, and that relation-oriented contexts are primary sources of conflict and stress of woman.